Star Trek: Propagation
by YeredYohanan
Summary: The USS Entity is reassigned following the discovery of a energy matrix containing similarities with a with forbidden technology, used almost a century ago.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_Stardate 60158.75_

They would be arriving at Starbase 332 if just over two hours, they were supposed to be a deep space vessel but all this between the two Starbase's moving people and equipment over the past couple of months made him think they were just a transport or cargo ship. They haven't even gone to warp in three weeks.

He wanted a different posting, one that involved more then plotting a course that was a straight line. He didn't have the nerve to ask thou, he hated to be rejected and it was just a way to set him up for one. Too bad they didn't have a cloak like the prototype Defiant class. That would at least make things interesting.

Suddenly his console started vibrating, soon it had increased to encompass the whole Bridge. "Report" the commander said.

Their is a shock wave approaching, it has gaps in it thou I have never seen anything like this, it appears to be unstable.

"Can you maneuver us so one of the gaps passes around us?"

"I believe so"

He entered a few commands into his console causing the ship to move a few hundred meters and come to a stop. "The shock wave has passed us" he said several seconds later.

"Put it on screen" the commander said.

He pulled it up on screen. Their was nothing but stars on the view screen.

"Where is it?" the commander asked.

"I am showing it is moving away from us, we should be able to see it, it isn't far enough away to not be on the screen.

"Plot a course to the source of the shock wave, warp one."

It took them only a matter of minutes to arrive at the source. "It's a class K planet" their is something unusual happening to it however I am reading multiple waves moving across the surface of the planet, they are all uniform in speed and direction."

"What is their composition?"

"Multiple types of biometric particles compose each of them, I am unable to determine how they are affecting the planet due to the interference they are producing."

"Hold coordinates here and contact Starfleet Command."


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

_Stardate 60158.83_

Smoke was venting out of the port nacelle and several breaches along her primary and secondary hull, it had come so fast, they didn't even see were they come from. The USS Horizon had entered into the mesosphere of the planet in a attempt to conceal themselves from their attackers. It appeared to have been successful, however they were sustaining damage from the planet. The gravitational pull was fluctuation cause damage to the structural integrity of the ship.

"Any sign of them yet?" Captain Sean Forsyth asked.

"Their is just too much interference." Ensign Jill Olson said. "We can't stay here much longer, the ship is being torn apart."

"Are the grave metric forces weaker near the surface?"

"It's hard to tell thru all this interference, but I believe it is from what I can make out from the readings."

"Ensign prepare all stations for planetary landing." he ordered.

"Yes sir." she said as the interior lights on the Bridge shifted to blue.

* * *

She sat their, pretending to be going over the information on the screen, she was board, she wanted to go do something else and this is one of the ways she found worked at getting her attention, even if initially she would be upset, she would get over it.

Sometimes it took longer then other days and she had to adapt her strategy, it appeared this would be one of those times. She started tapping the screen with her finger nails, the room was quiet enough that it provided the result that she had been waiting for.

"Will you stop that I am trying to study." she said.

"So am I she replied, didn't that would bother you, I will stop."

"Your not trying to study. Your trying to bug me because your finished."

"So." Cheryl said.

"It isn't nice, and I really need to do good on this test." Megan replied.

"I want to go do something else."

"If you want me to come then your going to have to wait."

Cheryl has little patience when it came to waiting for someone to get around to doing what she wanted. She thought others were too slow at going about their tasks quite frequently. "I'll just do it for you." she said as she stood up.

"Last time you did that I still failed and we both got in trouble." Megan said.

"That is because you didn't learn how to calculate using the formulas, if you would have you wouldn't of failed." Cheryl responded.

"I would have learned the formula's if you didn't just give me the answers." Then it occurred to her, Cheryl was just causing them to go in circles on purpose. "Will you stop making us talk about the same things over and over again."

"Well what do you want to do then?"

"My homework." Megan answered.

Mrs Shearer had heard the very end of the conversation the girls were having. "Cheryl why don't you go to your room and find something to do in there for a bit. "Maybe read up on dark matter nebula's".

Cheryl stood and left the room. Megan's mom hope that she was still interested in studying nebula, she probably was or she wouldn't have left the room so quickly and she would have had to find out what she was currently interested in. Her interests changed so quickly she never knew. She had learned that she always needed to make a suggestion on something for her to study however or she would be back out in no time.

"She does it on purpose." Megan said.

"She just wants to do something with you."

"I want to do something with her to, but my teacher keeps asking me if I need a tutor. I don't want a tutor."

"Have you asked Cheryl to help you, besides doing the work for you I mean?"

"It was her idea, besides she was the tutor he wanted to give me since we live together."

"It may have been her idea but you went along with it, and I think she would be a good tutor for you."

"I don't want her for a tutor, she is fun to do thing's with when were not doing school stuff, but when she is in her school mode it is like talking with a robot."

"Megan." her mom said

"It's true." she said.

"Megan Shearer go to your room."

"It's true and she doesn't care if you say things like that."

"Megan, she's not a machine. You don't really say things like that in front of her do you?"

"She doesn't care if you do."

"You don't know that, it could still bother her, it's hard to tell when something bothers her and you know it."

"Ok I'll stop doing it."

* * *

Captain Kyle Hunt sat down at his desk in his ready room and tapped come commands onto the display terminal. The control interface in the center of the screen changed, displaying someone he had not seen in a long time.

"Hello Captain, hows deep space been treating you?" Admiral Seth masters asked.

"I actually like it out her, I get to do what ever I want without you Admirals standing over my shoulder, you won't believe the stuff I have gotten myself into, especially since I never put it in my logs." Captain Hunt replied.

"That is why I recommended you for this command, I knew that with your free spirit you would enjoy breaking all the regulations you could."

"So what do I owe the pleasure of this call, someone didn't tell on me did they?"

"Actually the reason for contacting you is a bit more then a courtesy call. Two days ago the USS Horizon encountered a shock wave, they were able to avoid it and went to investigate the cause. They were transmitting data to us when the connection was lost. All attempts to regain communications failed."

"So you want use to go look for the Horizon?"

"Yes, but that is secondary. We only received part of the information from the Horizon's scans, when we evaluated the information we had received we discovered something disturbing."

The display changed to a graphical readout. "This is a energy matrix picked of as part of their scans, we crossed referenced it and found that it resembled a matrix we had experimented with in the past. This matrix was found to be unstable and the project was terminated, it had the ability to destroy a whole planet."

"What are your orders?" Captain Hunt asked.

"I want you to proceed to were we lost contact with the Horizon, hopefully you will find them, if you do not however you are to complete the scanning the had begun, but proceed with caution, if has something happened to them I do not want the same thing to happen to you, if you need to leave the area then do so, it may only be something minor but be ready in case it's not." Admiral Masters said.

* * *

The ship moved away from the planet at full impulse towards it's next destination, once it cleared the system it jumped to warp. While not performing completely as well as planned it was being viewed as a success, and they still had other opportunities to refine the procedure before moving onto the next phase.

If only they had not lost that Federation starship, they had been scanning the planet, in the unlikely event that they had sent information from those scans to Starfleet they may have some additional problems that would need to be dealt with. They didn't need to worry about the ship anymore however, it would not have been able to withstand being in the atmosphere of the planet for very long, especially after the damage it had sustained in the attack. It wouldn't be reporting to anyone the results of any scans ever again.

* * *

_Stardate 60160.63_

Megan entered the classroom with Cheryl. They sat at different location in the classroom. Megan sat with those who were at her grade level and Cheryl with those that were at hers. That was how the teacher had organized the class seating arrangements.

Cheryl was three grade levels above Megan which meant they didn't sit anywhere near each other during class. They didn't have as much free time as they used to in school, the younger kids still had free time but now that Megan and Cheryl were older they no longer did, so the only time they spent with each other during class was during lunch when Megan would move over to one of the desks around Cheryl's

She had told Cheryl that was ready for her test. She didn't think Cheryl believed her thou, not because of anything Cheryl had said or done but because she didn't think she was ready and she wouldn't have believed herself telling her that she was ready.

The time came for her grade level to take the test lunch, and she learned just how unready she was for it, she had studied, tried to be ready but she just could not grasp the concepts, she did not want to move back grade level, Cheryl was already so many ahead of her. She was the last to submit her test. She felt sick the rest of the day, she knew that she had failed it.

When the teacher had told them that their test results were she didn't understand why her score was not available, then she knew. She was going to need to talk to the teacher after class because she had failed so many of them. As the other students left she was waiting for it.

"Cheryl and Megan I would like you to wait her till the other students left." he said.

She was confused why he had said both of their names, she looked at Cheryl, knowing that some how she had done something to make it so she passed and had been caught somehow. That was not like Cheryl to get caught, she wondered how he had done so.

"Megan I got your test score and you did very well, too well in fact. I know you have difficulty with mathematics, I have offered to get a tutor for you and you have refused. I don't know how you girls did it but it was obvious that you cheated, you don't go from a failing grade to a A in one week, now how did you girls do it, transmitting answers somehow to each other?"

Megan didn't know what to say, for one she didn't know how Cheryl had done it, she didn't need to say anything however.

"She didn't even know about it until you called us in here, she wouldn't have agreed to it if I told her what I was going to do." Cheryl said.

He was doubtful this was the truth at first. He had seen other students take the blame for others before. "You didn't pass information between each other? So Cheryl how did you." he stopped mid sentence looking at her. "Cheryl, you didn't." he said.

"It depends on what your referring to." she answered.

It dawned on Megan just then what had happened. Cheryl was smart, it helped her in a lot of subjects including computers, but her knowledge was not the only means at her disposal.

"Security this is Dennis Ross." I have a situation here someone from security. "I have someone on their way." He then called engineering and told him he needed someone from that department also.

Megan why don't you go home, we will talk about your test tomorrow. Megan left the room taking one more look at Cheryl before the door slid closed. She did not know how much trouble she was going to get into for this. As she walked down the corridor to the Turbo Lift she passed the crew member from security who was on his way to her classroom.

She walked into their quarters to be greeted by her mom. "How was your day?"

"I've had better she said."

"I'm sorry about your test. Will figure it out."

"It's not that, I passed it but I think I have to take it again."

"That's good, but why would you have to take it again." her mom asked.

"I'm going to my room." she said.

"Megan's what wrong?" she started to be interrupted by the com system. "Mrs Shearer this is security." she saw Megan look at her and leave the room. "Oh no" she thought to herself. "This is Shearer" she finally said.

"We need you to come security."

"I'm on my way." she said.

* * *

She arrived in security, Cheryl was behind a force field in one of the cells. "Why is she in a cell?" she asked in irritation.

"She infected the school computer subsystem with nanoprobes. Engineering is working to fix the problem." the crew man behind the security station said.

She gave Cheryl a disappointed look. "When can I take her home?" she asked.

"The situation has been reported to the Commander Embro. You will need to check with her."

"Can I talk to her before I go talk to Embro."

"You'll need to do it thru the force field. I will give you a few minutes."

She walked up to the cell holding Cheryl. "What were you thinking?" she asked.

She seemed upset about the test, I was trying to help her. I didn't think that her receiving a A would have raised the teachers suspicion because her previous scores had been so low, I will remember that for next time."

"Cheryl, their can't be a next time. I have to go talk to the First Officer now about what your punishment is going to be, I don't know what she is going to want to do."

'The shouldn't have given her a test that was so hard for her. He knew that she was having difficulty, and it is obvious she didn't want help she wanted to do it on her own. Since he would not adapt to assist her I had to. I was doing his assigned task."

"Cheryl will talk about this later. I need to go talk to Commander Ember."

Cheryl just sat their as she left the room, she didn't regret what she had done, she believed what she had done had to be done."

* * *

She walked into the Commanders office when she called her in.

"Please sit down." Commander Ember said.

"Spare me the long lecture, I know what she did, I talked to her about why she did it, and have told her that she can not solve problems by doing what she did, she has a point thou that the teacher should have done more for Megan before she took the test, it is affecting Megan having so much difficulty and he is trained to handle those kind of situations and since he didn't Cheryl took it upon herself to resolve it in the best way she knew how." Mrs. Shearer said.

"I understand that your upset, you are close to Cheryl, she has lived with you for quite some time now. You have to understand thou the Borg are dangerous, they likes they have destroyed, the destruction they have done."

"She's not a part of the Collective anymore, she wasn't doing something that they told her to do. Have you ever even personally encountered the Borg? Been with in two meters of a Drone?"

"No I haven't" Ember said.

"I have". Alice said. "I have seen what they can do and Cheryl is not like them anymore, she is a child who's friend was having difficulty with something and she used her abilities to help her friend. It is no different then if my daughter was trying to use her abilities to help someone, sometimes they make bad choices when using those abilities. Every child has a unique set of abilities, it just happens that Cheryl's are artificial. It doesn't mean that they aren't natural to her, they are a part of her now. I understand and agree that their should be repercussions for what she did, but what I have said needs to be taken into account also."

"I understand what you're saying." Ember's replied. The problem is that unlike, lets use your daughter as a example again, Cheryl's abilities can do things that endanger the whole ship, even unintentionally, I don't mean to keep making reference to the Borg but it is a good example, even with the superior intellect the collective gives them they have made unintentional mistakes that have almost led to disaster for them. I am going to have her released but she will not be attending class with the other students any longer, I will have Holodeck time reserved for her daily were she will have a tutor, beginning tomorrow she will also be required to have weekly counseling sessions.

* * *

When she returned to their quarters with Megan's mom almost a hour later she didn't say anything to Megan, she went straight to her room and entered her Regeneration Chamber. It was easier for her to think when she was connected to it.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Stardate 60162.74_

Repair teams had been working thru the night fixing as many systems as possible. Captain Forsyth did not know if whoever had attacked them was still out there, waiting to for them. He had ordered that all repair efforts be focused on the impulse and warp systems. If they were still out their he wanted to make sure that they could escape.

It would take too much time to repair both the propulsion and weapons systems and time was a valuable asset at the moment, he did not know who had attacked them, what their offensive capability was or if they would be able to find them, even thru the interface coming from the planet.

It would still be a few hours before they may be able to leave and those estimates were only if nothing else goes wrong.

* * *

_Stardate 60162.99_

"It isn't fair, it was my test and I didn't get in as much trouble as you." Megan said as she sat in the chair across from the Regeneration Chamber.

"It, didn't have anything to do with who's test it was, it had to do with the method that the result of the test was altered. They fear the Borg, and I am part Borg. What I did to the computers in the classroom reinforced that fear even thou it didn't effect any computers outside that room." Cheryl said as she sat in the chair next to her.

"They have no reason to be scared of you, you would never do anything that would hurt them."

"You were their and you were scared of me."

"But your not like that anymore, you wouldn't hurt them now."

"But if I was a part of the Collective again I would become a threat, some of them could get hurt, the ship could be damaged. They have had to attend courses on the Borg, they have heard the stories, they know this."

"What did you do to the computers in the classroom, mom only told me that you broke them. I injected nanoprobes into them with the instruction to alter the information associated with your test in a certain way. Nothing else would have happened once they had completed what I wanted them to do."

"It's weird how you can do that, why won't you show me?"

"Your mom would not be happy if I showed you."

"So don't tell her, she doesn't know that we talk about all this when she isn't around. She thinks it would bother you."

"It doesn't bother me, it helps me remember what it was like in the Collective."

"I still don't understand why you would want to become part of the Collective again if could only do what you were told and couldn't do what ever you wanted. It's would be like having your parents bossing you around all the time."

"Let me try explaining in a better way so you understand it. You remember your last birthday party will all those people their?"

"Yes." she answered.

"They were all talking at the same time. Were you able to keep track of what all of them were saying at the same time and talk back to all of them at the same time even thou all the conversation were different?"

"No, but you could. I saw you talking to three different people about different things at the same time."

"Your not helping me explain this by deviating from what I am telling you."

"Sorry." Megan said.

"It's like everyone in the room is saying the same thing and you're saying it also, but everyone in the room is saying other things also and your listening to those things. Does that make sense?"

"No." Megan said.

"It's something you would need to experience to understand it." Cheryl said.

"I don't think that is a good idea, my mom wouldn't be happy and I don't want to know that bad."

"I wasn't saying I was going to connect you to the Collective. I don't think I could even do it by myself if you wanted me to." Cheryl said.

"Oh ok" Megan said sounding relieved.

"Next time I am part of the Collective, I'll have you join me then you can know what it is like, it is easier then explaining."

"That's not funny, you have a lame sense of humor sometimes." Megan said.

"I was just trying to help you understand."

"Whatever." Megan said.

* * *

Megan entered the classroom and could instantly tell that word had gotten around about what had happened yesterday. She was not thrilled at this prospect. She had started coming to class on board the ship and had made some friends. She had told them that her best friend was going to be living with her and her mom. No one had even a second thought about this until Cheryl arrived.

She became the focus of talk the instant she attended class her first day. She wasn't sure who started it but one of the kids parents had been talking about her and from there it spread until everyone in the class knew that she used to be a Borg. The conversations were always when she wasn't around and they tried to include her in the conversations because she was her friend and they had all sorts of questions about her.

She refused to answer them, telling them mind their own business or telling they are rude for asking. Soon she was no longer included in the group of kids that had been her friends before Cheryl arrived.

She expected them to be talking about her behind her back now in addition to talking about Cheryl. Unlike Cheryl who would not be bothered by this she was bothered by it. Sometimes she envied Cheryl's ability to regulate her emotions.

* * *

She waited outside the Holodeck for the security officer to arrive. She could not enter the Holodeck. It would not let her in, just as she had been told she would need to wait for someone to access the the computer so she could enter for her school session.

She could get it too let her in but that would just lead to a situation similar to yesterdays with a more severe form of punishment.

After she was done with her tutoring session she was to to a session with the ship's Counselor, and she would still be home almost two hours before Megan got home.

When he finally arrived over twenty minutes late she pointed out because he was late she was late and that he needed to make sure he was on time next time. He didn't say anything to her, activated the Holodeck program and left.

She could tell someone had haphazardly programmed the tutor on short notice, someone who probably didn't know who it was for. They had probably told the person they needed it programmed for a twelve year old and they had assumed a normal twelve year old and not one that had once been assimilated by the Borg.

She finished what should have been a three school day in less then a hour and they program ended instead of moving onto the next day's work, so she left the Holodeck wondering what she was going to do for the next two hours.

* * *

"We are secure from warp." Ensign Samuel's said.

"Go to yellow alert and begin scanning the region, increasing the parameters to include the this type of energy matrix." he said as he entered the information into his console and had it transferred to the ops console. "If you detect and ships go immediately notify me and go to red alert."

"Yes sir." Samuel's said. He did not know what was going on but he could tell it was important, possibly even dangerous based on his orders to go to Red Alert if any ships were detected and he intended to do exactly as ordered.

It didn't take long until scans had come up with something unusual. They were approaching the planet, it was Class K, uninhabitable with special equipment, or at least it should have been Class K according to the computer database.

The sensors were reading it as a Class M planet, they had not picked up any definitive life signs, emissions from the planet was causing all sorts of sensor inconsistencies when he tried to scan the surface. He looked at another portion of his console when it started beeping at him.

"Sir, I am reading that energy matrix you wanted scanned for in all the layers of the atmosphere I am able to get readings from. I am not able to scan the surface and am receiving little details on the exact conditions down their, the sensors are providing enough data that I can tell that the planet is Class M."

"Are you sure?" Captain Hunt asked.

"I have triple checked the scans, it is a class M planet."

"How is that possible?"

"I am not sure, I need to get more information." Samuel's said.

* * *

_Stardate 60163.68_

"Come in", Counselor Michaels said as the door signal someone had arrived. She watched the girl as she entered the room, she liked to find out as much as she could right from the beginning, it helped her know what she could expect and she had already began to learn what this session was going to be like. She couldn't determine anything from looking at her expression, she was completely indifferent to being there, that was all that she could determine.

She was going to be operating in the dark, she had done some research into subjects that had been rescued from the Borg so that she would be better able to understand what she was going to be like, the information had said that she would have a strong willpower, lessened emotion, a tendency to intimidate and the ability to read someone to name a few. Even knowing all this she hadn't realized the true extent of the challenge that had been given her until the she had arrived. The girl had the upper hand already and all she had done was walked thru the door, the session hadn't even started yet..

* * *

_Stardate 60163.71_

Megan left the classroom and proceeded toward their quarters. The day had happened just as she thought it would. It was like they thought she was deaf, talking about what had happened yesterday. Everyone of them had gotten at least part of the events wrong. If she didn't know what had really happened she would now would thinking that some kind of incorporeal space life form had infiltrated the ship with the intention of draining the life out of everyone on board. It annoyed her to no end, she now wished she had been the one expelled from class so she didn't have to go back and hear more.

She entered her quarters, she had intended to go to her room but stopped as she came to the door to Cheryl's room, she looked inside to make sure she wasn't in there. Not that it mattered she had learned long ago Cheryl did not care if she went into her room when she wasn't there. She guessed it had something to do with the Borg not being individuals, not concerned about having personal space and even thou she no longer was Borg she did not care about anyone coming into her room at anytime, whether she was there or not, no matter what she was doing at the time.

She walked up to the regeneration chamber, this was another one of the things that she had wondered about ever sense she had first seen it. She had done her best watching them install it, she hadn't been able to watch the whole time with all those who were working on it coming and going out of the room but she had watched a lot of the work they had done.

Whenever she entered it, it made that serious of deep sounds, if she left when she was done regenerating the computer would tell her, if she left before she was done it would tell her that her regenerating cycle was incomplete, she had heard it say that more times then she could remember and Cheryl never seemed to worried about it.

She stepped into it and stood where Cheryl stood and closed her eyes, nothing happened. Not that she really expected anything to, she wondered what it was like for her when she was standing there regenerating, she attributed it to being the same as sleeping since Cheryl used in during the night and didn't have a bed, she thought it must be uncomfortable to sleep standing up, she knew that wasn't really the way it was from Cheryl's perspective, but like so many other things about Cheryl she did not understand she used whatever behavior that was closest in similarity and used that. Whenever Cheryl tried to explain it she only confused her more. She was awful at explaining these things.

She opened her eyes and was surprised to see Cheryl sitting in the chair she usually sat in. She had not heard her come in.

"How was it?" Cheryl asked.

"Sorry." Megan said, embarrassed at being caught.

"Their is no need to worry, your mom hasn't arrived home yet and you have been curious about the Regeneration Chamber for a while now."

"How was your new class, it must be weird having a Hologram as a teacher."

"They messed it up. I was supposed to be their for three hours and was their for less then one. It ran out of things to do. They didn't program it very well, I could have done better."

"You can do a lot of things better then them, I don't think they would let you program your own teacher thou."

"They wouldn't, the won't even let me access any of the computer systems without a adult present. I wonder if that includes the Turbo Lifts, it probably does. They wouldn't want me to attack the Bridge I don't believe."

"That would be funny if you suddenly came out of the Turbo Lift on the bridge, I would like to see the look on their faces."

"I wasn't being serious, to actually do it would be a bad idea."

"I know." Megan said.

* * *

She had seated herself in the office, waiting for her to return. She was going thru it in her head, deciding how the best way the give her report, how she would explain things. It didn't take her long to return.

"Sorry about that." Commander Ember said. "So tell me how did her first session go?"

"Honestly, it is going to take longer then I had anticipated. I did some research before hand to help prepare myself for her session and I should have taken what the reports said more seriously."

"Are you going to be able to help her overcome her condition?" Ember's asked.

"Their is something else I would like to address first sir." She had been forced to handle situations with those she was under the command of before, on rare occasions she had even had to relieve one from duty. "Your perspective on the situation is going to need to changed sir, otherwise it is in the best interest that I restrict your authority from making decisions about the the girl."

This caught her off guard, she had been expecting the counselor to provide her with information that would help her decide if the girl should remain on board not remove hear ability to make any decisions at all about her. "What would be the basis for this?" she asked.

"You are being prejudice toward her. I read your report, the words you used, your references to her, it's overall tone. You had already made your decision before you had even arranged for her to see me. You view her as nothing more then a machine, a piece of technology that had been designed to serve a purpose but has now sustained damage and can no longer perform as it had been designed, and you are wrong to think of her that way. She once was connected to the Collective, they altered her with technology making it so that she didn't have as many biological systems as she had before, it did not make it so she wasn't a life form. Beneath all that technology, all those changes still lies a twelve year old girl. I don't care what happened in that classroom, I don't care that you view her as a possible threat. Right now she is not a threat, even with what she did in the classroom, it did not affect any critical system, it wasn't meant to be a attack. She was trying to help her friend. I don't know about you but I have never heard of the Borg Collective doing something to help their friend, we have dealt with threats more dangerous then what she is capable of. You are being prejudice. Before I continue with my report, I need to know from you, have you already made a decision into what you intend for the girl?"

"Yes." Commander Ember's said.

"Do you have all the pertinent information, knowledge and understanding that would show that justify your decision and show that it was a unbiased?"

She could see were this was going, were it had gone. She was no longer going to be allowed to make decisions about the child. She was only trying to do what was best for the ship, she had thought about what the counselor was saying and understood the mistake she had made, after everything the counselor had said she understood the counselor's perspective, she agreed with it now and agreed with what she knew was going to happen. "No, I do not have the information I would need to make a unbiased decision."

"Then I am going to need to revoke any orders you have given having to do with the girl. I will be taking over the responsibility of making any further decisions until the Captain has made a decision about this matter." Counselor Michaels said.

"Counselor." Commander Embers spoke up.

"Yes sir?"

"I will be recommending to the Captain that you be kept in charge off all decisions regarding the girl from this point forward due to the level of understanding you have about her."

"Understood sir" she answered.

"Your dismissed."

She thought about what she had just done, she hadn't been unable to get anywhere with Cheryl, and now she was the one who would be responsible to make any decision's about her. It had only been one session thou, she would find a way to make progress, somehow.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Stardate 60163.81_

"It's defiantly a ion trail being picked up on long range scans." Ensign Samuel said. "It's signature is not recognized by the computer."

"How old is it?" Captain Hunt asked.

""Somewhere between two and three hours I would guess."

He sat their evaluating his options, they had completed the scans of the planet and sent the information onto Starfleet for analysis. Their had been no sign of the Horizon, not even a debris field. If it had been pulled into the planet and destroyed they may not detect anything. His orders were to first find out what he could about the energy matrix and that ion signature may lead them to the information he sought, following it however would mean that the would stop looking for the Horizon. If she was there somewhere in distress and they left, they may never be found.

He decided that they would follow the ion trail after much thought. If the Horizon wasn't there they would just be wasting valuable time.

"Set a course to follow that ion trail, maximum warp." he ordered.

Within moments they had left the planet behind.

* * *

Even from this distance they could detect their approach, they stuck out like a firefly in a pitch black room to their sensors, shortly after they had detected the Federation starship following them they had faded from view, blocked by a sophisticated technology that was emitting energy surges of various frequencies and moved in to intercept.

* * *

She sat their across from Counselor Michaels in the lounge. She was not happy when she found out that the Counselor would now be making the decisions about here. She had asked why Megan's mom couldn't still do it and been told that she already knew the answer to that. Nothing had changed beyond that, she was still to attend class in the Holodeck and was still forbidden from using any of the computer systems.

"I will have the your tutor programmed better." Michaels said to her. She didn't appear to be paying attention to her however, the assumed this was normal also. "Cheryl are you paying attention?" she asked.

"What is that.?" Cheryl asked as she looked out the window she was facing.

Michaels turned around in her chair to see what she was talking about. "I don't see anything." she said.

"You don't see that it is getting closer?" she asked.

She didn't know enough about her to know if this was a game she played on others, she decided to go along. If it was one of the ways she acted she wanted to gather as much information as she could about it. "What does it look like?"

"Like a rainbow maybe, different parts of it are different color thou and they keep changing. It looks like a shield that is covering nothing. As soon as she had said it she knew what she was looking at, she saw the danger, knew that they were in trouble. Before anyone could have stopped her she had stood up and was almost to the computer display just inside the door."

Michaels stared in disbelief that she would do this again so soon after all the trouble she had gotten into last time. "Cheryl get back here." she said as she got up and moved toward her. When she reached her she tried to pull her away from the panel only to be shoved backwards by Cheryl.

* * *

_Stardate 60164.04_

"Sir weapons are coming online." Ensign Samuel said.

Captain Hunt looked at him. "What?, Where are they being brought online from?" he asked.

"We have a torpedo lock." the Ensign said.

"On what, there is nothing around us."

"On nothing, the lock is on a area of space ahead of us. Were firing."

They all watched as several torpedoes moved away from the ship, spreading out. He expected them to just keep traveling, give me a systems check for malfunctions he said when suddenly the first torpedo exploded, coming into contact with some, quickly followed by a explosion from the second one. Something was out their and they had just hit it. "Raise Shields" he said as the remaining torpedoes hit the object at different locations." He assumed someone in fire control had fired them, he would have to find out later how they had detected the ship in the first place and why they had fired them.

"Sir, their returning fire." The ship shook as a beam being emitted from the ship came in contact their shields. "Our shields are being drained."

"Fire all weapons take out that beam."

"A volley of torpedoes flew into the opposing ship causing the beam to stop firing as several portions of the other ship became disable."

"Tactical report and disable here. I have questions for them as torpedo hit their shields."

"Sir, are shields are down to twenty three percent, her weapons are strong."

"Fire torpedoes and keep firing them as you bring us about and take us to warp the minute were facing the opposite direction."

The USS Entity started turning around firing out her forward torpedo bays and then her rear torpedo bay at the other ship and jumped to warp at the same moment she was firing another torpedo.

"Are they pursing?" Captain Hunt asked.

"Their deflector array was damaged, they wont be able to follow us. The energy signature of that ship matches the ion trail we were firing." Samuel's said.

He wanted to know who they were. But not as much as he wanted to know who had fired at them, and how did they know they were out their.

"I am reviewing sensor logs." Samuel's said. When the first torpedo hit them we were able to get some readings, they had locked weapons on is before we had hit them and they had been firing thru the cloak even when parts of it had been destroyed. We wouldn't have stood a chance if we hadn't fired those torpedoes."

Captain Hunt was thinking this thru when Lieutenant Nelson at tactical began speaking. Sir security is requesting you in the Lounge, they are reporting that Counselor Michaels has been injured and is being taken to sickbay.

"So why don't they want me in sickbay then?"

"The Evan's child is apparently responsible."

Just the problem he needed right now. He had been informed about what she had done in the classroom, and the reasons why his first officer was no longer permitted to make decisions about the child, and now she had attacked the person who was making decisions about her. He was going to have to have her transferred from the ship as soon as this other mess was sorted out.

* * *

He entered the lounge, she was seated at one of the tables. The room had been cleared of all non essential personal. "Give me a report" he said.

From witnesses statements the girl interfaced with the panel here using Borg technology, when the Counselor tried to stop her she pushed her back causing her head to come in contact with the table."

"What did she access thru the terminal?"

"From what logs contain it appears she accessed the weapon systems were having difficulty determining if she accessed anything else, their are still residual nanoprobes active making it more difficult to examine the logs. An Engineering team has been dispatched to eliminate them from the system."

"No he said, I want them left their, at least for now. Have them isolate the terminal from the rest of the ship."

"Sir?" he questioned.

"Just do it."

He then walked over to Cheryl. "How did you know?"

"I detected an energy surge out the window while I was talking to Counselor Michaels. It was getting closer, as I was watching it another energy signature began overlapping with energy surge, the second energy signature had properties similar to a class six phaser system charging, I have never experienced this before but I was sure of what I was detecting and I had to stop them."

"You saved the ship." He said.

Cheryl just stared at him."I didn't want to hurt Counselor Michaels, I had not intended to push her back so hard but I could not allow her to stop me. The ship was in danger."

"Can you repeat what you did and detect them again?"

The part of her she had used to detect them had been there from the before she had joined the collective. She knew from her own data storage nodes the devices had become part of her sometime after she had been removed from the maturation chamber but before she had become a part of the collective, she couldn't be more specific since her data storage nodes had not been completely operational at that specific moment. She had never used them, didn't even know what those specific nodes were for until now. "I believe so." she said.

"Release her." he ordered. "I need you to come with me to the Bridge" he said to her.

* * *

She followed him out of the Turbo Lift, looking around. She had seen diagrams of it on the computer before, she had never been on the Bridge however. Some of the others were looking at her, she could see from the puzzled expressions on their face they did not know why she was there. If she had not been with the Captain they would have seen to it that she was removed.

"Commander, meet me in my ready room. Bridge to sickbay, Doctor Chase can you come to my ready room?" Captain Hunt asked.

"I'm on my way." Chase replied.

He then entered his ready room followed by Cheryl.

"Captain, I must object to her being on the Bridge." Commander Ember said.

"I understand your concern Commander but I believe she posses no threat, she was the one who fired the torpedoes at the other ship."

"She did?" Ember said sounding confused. "How did she even know they were there, ship sensors didn't even pick them up."

"That is what I hope the doctor can figure out.

A couple of minutes later Doctor Chase arrived and he updated her on what had just occurred.

"How was she able to see them?" Captain Hunt asked.

"I can't give you a certain answer." Doctor Chase said. "In normal Borg physiology the drone always has a ocular implant. She was removed from the maturation chamber before the maturation cycles had completed however. It is common knowledge that the Borg adapt to new situations and is was speculated she would adapt to being prematurely removed from the maturation chamber, the question was how she would adapt.

The reports on her that I read mention that her irises are directly connected to the optical centers of her brain, the tests that had been performed showed that they could perform the same functions as a Drones optical implant. This was one of the ways she had adapted. She never showed an ability to use them the way as a ocular implant is used so it was determined that the technology had never become completely integrated into her.

"So she still changing, being assimilated?" Commander Ember asked.

"I need to do more scans in sickbay to find out but it seems so." Chase responded.

"That will need to wait Doctor she is needed on the Bridge, you can return to sickbay. At the earliest convenience I will have Cheryl report to you so we can learn more about what is happening."

Hunt then turned to Cheryl. "I want you to to go to Tactical and stay with Lieutenant Nelson. He is performing scans of the area, tell him that I want you to work with him. If you see anything that you believe could be that ship you are to tell him immediately."

Captain Hunt waited for Cheryl to leave the room and the door to slide closed.

"Commander I know what your thinking, that this is too great a risk. And I agree that this is a risk but is it a bigger risk then not having her on the Bridge. You saw what they did our shields and they were severely damaged . Without her there is a strong likelihood that we will not survive another attack."

"You heard the Doctor, she is still undergoing assimilation. What other new things can she do that she doesn't know about and what if she contacts the collective?"

"The Doctor needs to examine her in sickbay to determine what is happening to her, they has been a explanation for both of the times she accessed the computer without authorization and neither of them were and attempt to harm us. The first incident she was trying to help her friend, she still is a child and while she seems more grown up then she is, she occasionally has been found to make poor decisions the way any other child would."

"A normal child does not have the ability take control of ship systems anytime they want." Ember interrupted.

"I agree they don't, but by taking control of those ship systems she saved the ship. We a have a potential threat and a confirmed threat, your not alone in your concerns about her but she is the lesser of two evils, we don't know everything but we do know a lot about what she can do and we know what are options are if she did become greater threat, when it comes to that ship out there, we know very little, sensors did not pick it up, we most likely would have been destroyed if she hadn't seen them."

Ember nodded, "She understood, even agreed with the Captain. She may be unpredictable, even dangerous, but they needed her.

* * *

_Stardate 60164.45_

Megan and her mom sat their at the table. The conversation's they had during meals were different, lighter in content when Cheryl wasn't eating with them. Alice still worried that Cheryl wasn't getting enough to eat, she understood that she didn't her body didn't need as much food as theirs did, but it had never occurred to her just how long she could go without eating sometimes as many as four or five days, but it was usually only two or three and sometimes she would eat with them every night. She knew this would not have been due to being hungry on the occasion that she ate daily, she may not exhibit emotions that often and when she did it could be difficult to tell because of the ways she did it, but that was one of the ways you could tell that she was lonely.

When she had agreed to have Cheryl stay with them, and Starfleet had been informed she had received a offer for her and Megan to attend some courses that were offered to cadets about the Borg she had thought it would be a good idea. It wasn't all the courses that cadets went thru, just the ones relating to those who had been separated from the collective.

Megan had only attended the first couple of days, the amount of information more then she had thought it would be. She completed the courses only to discover that once Cheryl had arrived that most of it was of no help. When she inquired about it, then they told her that every cause was unique and that the courses were online meant as a point of reference or in other words she basically she had just wasted three months.

"I know you don't like interrupting her but why don't you go see if Cheryl wants something to eat." Megan's mom said.

"She's not here." Megan replied.

"She's not here? It's after 2100 hours. Where is she?"

"She had a session Counselor Michaels."

"That was supposed to be over five hours ago. Why didn't you tell me she wasn't back?"

Megan shrugged.

Megan's mom dreaded what she could possibly be doing, hoping she had not gotten herself in trouble. It should have occurred to her that something was out of place when she hadn't seen Cheryl during or after the emergency situation, she was always curious about what was going on during those events. "Computer, locate Cheryl Evans." she said.

"Cheryl Evans is on the Bridge the computer responded."

This caught both of them off guard. The first thing that came to Mrs Shearer's mind was that Cheryl had someone managed to sneak onto the Bridge. That was another thing she was interested in and didn't like that no matter who she had asked and many times she had asked her request had been denied. This new unpredictable behavior of hers could be a sign of some unexpected problems with the technology inside her.

She left the table and went to her room before she called the Bridge. She didn't know what was going on but she did not think it was good and did not want Megan to hear whatever she was about to be told, especially if they didn't know she was up there. "Computer get me the Bridge." she said. It only took a moment before the Captains face was on the screen of the terminal, she had expected to get whoever was at ops."

"Evening Mrs. Shearer I am sorry I hadn't contacted you I got busy and forgot, Cheryl is at tactical learning some of the systems, is it alright if she stays here another hour."

"She's learning Tactical, why's that?" she asked questionably.

"I decided that it would be good for her to learn about ship operations."

"She has class tomorrow."

"We will adjust her tutoring schedule, She will be having on the Bridge for the next few days."

"Um yea that is fine." She sat there for several minutes in disbelief before returning to the table with Megan.

"Is she in trouble again?" Megan asked.

"No, she's going to be studying how different parts of the ship work for the next few days as part of her classes."

"She's so lucky" Megan said.

* * *

_Stardate 60165.59_

The two girls sat at the table talking about nothing in particular. Cheryl had not mentioned anything about what she had learned while on the Bridge or why she was now having class on the Bridge.

When Mrs Shearer had asked her how did she end up being taught on the Bridge she gave the exact same answer the Captain did. It was too much to be a coincidence. Something was going on, something that Cheryl knew about and she didn't. It had to do with the attack on the ship yesterday, she was sure. She was also sure that Cheryl's unique abilities had something to do with it. She believed that she was more then capable of whatever they had her doing, but it still made her uncomfortable not knowing what so important that they would allow her access to the Bridge when two days ago they wouldn't even let her use a computer on the ship.

She intended to find out what was going on if she had to go to the Captain himself, thou that wouldn't be easy, or would it.

* * *

"Cheryl you ready to go?"

She was already heading for the door when she asked. "I leaving now."

"The Captain wanted me to come with you. He said he needed to talk to me about something."

Cheryl didn't give this a second thought, it made sense that he would want to talk to her, since this was were she lived. The moved down the corridor into the Turbo Lift and proceeded to the Bridge.

As the exited the Turbo Lift it became apparent that something had alarmed some of them on the Bridge, at first she thought she had done something, then it occurred to her what had happened, they were not looking at her, they were looking at Megan's mom. She turned to her. "You lied to me, the Captain didn't request you come with me."

Captain Hunt heard the exchange between Cheryl and Mrs. Shearer.

"Mrs Shearer in my Ready Room now. Cheryl report to Tactical." he said.

She had noticed how he had told Cheryl to report to Tactical like she was part of the Bridge staff. It only reinforced that more was going on here then she knew about."


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Your using her, she shouldn't be up here." Mrs. Shearer said.

The conversation had heated from the moment the door to the ready room had closed. Captain Kyle Hunt was not pleased that she had entered the Bridge thru deception. Mrs. Shearer was not pleased that he was using Cheryl as if she was a tool. Neither of them had backed down.

"I do not believe Starfleet would approve of the way you are treating her."

"We have a enemy out their, that is stronger then us. We would already have been destroyed if it was not for her, that includes you and your daughter."

"You have taken things too far."

"This discussion is over, I am having you escorted to security."

"And I am filling a complaint with the Starfleet Ethics Board."

"That is your right."

* * *

They were returning to the planet where they had been searching for the USS Horizon, the area of space she were needing to scan was massive. She had informed them that the odds of discovering the enemy ship if returned were not that good given number of possible directions it could come from. With the planet however, they could limit the options the enemy ship had to approach them. It would be easier for her to detect them and it didn't take long.

She had already determined some of the paths they would most likely follow as they moved in for another attack.

* * *

_Stardate 60165.95_

The anti-grav thrusters hummed as the ship slowly started to rise from the ground. She had been on the surface for some long she seemed happy to be in the air. They were not having any major complications as they raised thru the stratosphere.

"Sir, I am detecting antimatter discharges, comparable to detonations of photon torpedoes" Ensign Olson said as the shipped entered the ionosphere."

"Have they established a lock on us?" Captain Forsyth asked. He had come to the assumption that the unknown ship had remained and had detected them when they had lifted off from the surface.

"I don't think discharges are meant for us, they are not close enough to use almost ten kilometers from our present location."

"Can you give me their exact position?"

"I am not detecting their vessel, just the discharges and now. This is odd, they have a Federation signature." Ensign Olson said.

"Stop the accent, initiate a full sensor sweep of the area were the energy signature is coming from." Captain Forsyth said.

* * *

They had taken heavy damage, even with the foreknowledge that the ship was there. They had been expecting to be detected this time around and had wasted no time in starting their attack. The USS Entity had only gotten a couple of shots off before she had been hit. Her shields were now down to eighteen percent, several systems had failed including the phaser banks, things looked grim. Captain Hunt didn't think they were going to make it, he hoped that they would not fire on the escape pods as he prepared to give the order to evacuate the ship.

He didn't know were they had come from, that could be determined later, he was just happy to see what he was looking at. Several torpedoes came into contact with the enemy ship, causing it a pause in it's attack. He was not going to let it resume without taking advantage of this turn of events. "Fire everything we have left into that thing." Captain Hunt ordered. He watched as photon torpedoes from his own ship joined with the phaser and torpedo's from the other unknown source hitting the ship.

Soon debris was floating away from the other ship as pieces of it were blown off of it. It's cloaking device had completely failed, he could not see the complete shape of the ship, it turned and started to move away. "Full scans on that ship before they are out of range." he ordered, they were in no condition to follow them, he wanted to know everything he could about who he was dealing with.

* * *

"Captain, I apologize that I was not able to give a earlier warning that the ship had arrived."

"You did fine Cheryl, the damage we sustained would have been much worse had you not discovered they had returned."

She nodded. "If it is ok I would like to return to my Regeneration Chamber. I do not believe the other ship will be returning any time soon."

"That's fine Cheryl. Can I call you if your needed?" he asked. He did not know if she was conscious while regenerating.

"I believe their is little concern that they would be able to return for at least a couple a hours, you can contact me if you need to however."

He turned his attention to the source of the other weapons fire, with sensors and communications damaged he was unable to confirm it but he was guessing that the USS Horizon was responsible. If it was the Horizon, where had they been when they had been before?

* * *

_Stardate 60165.99_

She sat in the holding cell, she knew that they had come under attack, she had felt the impacts and could see the damage that been done to security. She was worried about Cheryl and Megan, when she had tried to get information from the Security Officer she had been told that the issue was being handled and that they would be looked after by whoever had been assigned to in the event of a emergency. This didn't provide her any comfort. She wanted to be allowed to go and check for herself.

She had thought about what the Captain had said, she had come to the conclusion that he right, if Cheryl abilities were their best chance for them to survive then they should be used. That didn't mean she had to like it. She believed Cheryl was being used in the same fashion as a sensor or a shield and not as a person, and the approached he had taken, the things he had said to her, they way he had said them was unacceptable.

* * *

The two starships had moved away from the planet a short distance. The USS Entity was undergoing repairs. Teams had not been sent over from the USS Horizon to assist in the repairs, they could not take the risk in case the enemy ship returned and resumed it's attack leaving the Horizon with diminished resources, out of the two ships it was the one that was in better condition.

The Entity would not survive another attack. Neither ship had long range communications and they could not call for assistance. All non essential personal were being moved to the Horizon, once that had been completed the Horizon would be leaving the system to seek assistance. They wanted to get as many of the Entity's offensive and defensive systems and engines repaired as soon as possible, every other system was being left in the condition it was currently in. If they attacked while the Horizon was making her escape the Horizon was not going to return fire unless they found their retreat blocked, it would fall on the Entity and her remaining crew to protect the Horizon until she was away, it would only take a few seconds for her to move to warp but in a few seconds a lot can happen in battle.

* * *

_Stardate 60166.04_

They sat their at a distance watching the two ships, they had been able to get the cloak back online but it was not working at peak efficiency due to the damage they had sustained.

They could tell what the two Federation ships were doing, with the shuttles moving back and forth, they were evacuating one of the ships. If they had just been transferring repair teams the frequency of the shuttle trips would have been less.

They did not know which ship was being evacuated, it would have been the one most severely damaged which mostly was the one that they had been attacking and not the one that had caught them off guard, but they could not be sure. Sensors were not able to tell from this distance due to damage to them and they didn't dare get any closer. Their cloaking device should have been undetectable to the Federation starship but it had fired on them before they had even fired a shot. They could somehow detect them, they didn't know if both ships could, the other one had been caught off guard and didn't see them coming but that could have been due to interference from the planet. They had to go on the premise that both ships could detect their approach and any other Federation starships they encountered. They had to stop that ship from leaving and getting bring back more starships, once it had gone to warp they would be unable to, their own warp drive system was still offline.

* * *

"Sir, I'm detecting the ship, they are cloaked but their cloaking system is damaged. They are on intercept course for the Horizon" Lieutenant Nelson said.

"Can you get a weapons lock?" Captain Hunt asked.

"Yes sir."

"Lock weapons as soon as they are in range and fire everything we have left at that ship. Ensign Samuel contact the Horizon tell them we have company, tell them we will be abandoning ship and have them wait till we have beamed over before going to warp. Enter a collision course but do not engage until my order."

* * *

They were almost with in weapons range, perhaps they had lucked out. Neither ship appeared to be aware to their present. That is what they had believed until the one with the most amount of damaged started firing on them, the sheer size of the onslaught causing massive amounts of damage to systems already damaged systems. They were still moving toward their target, would be within range in a matter of moments, when a large section of their ship was torn off.

The ship that had been firing had collided with them, they watched as it's remnants exploded into millions of pieces, disabling or destroying their remaining systems. They could tell from the damage report that they had failed. They sent out one last communication and within moments their ship had suffered the same fate of the USS Entity as it's remains spread out across space.

* * *

_Stardate 60166.06_

Captain Hunt stood on the Bridge of the USS Horizon, the view screen showing the area they had just left. He had watched the destruction of his ship, he was now mourning her loss.

The enemy ship had been destroyed in the collision, they were safe, the price they had paid was high however.

It would take them a few hours to be able to contact Starfleet, without long range communications they were going to use one the many sensor relay stations that Starfleet had throughout the quadrant. However, it would take time for them to come into range of one of them.

* * *

She sat their in the cargo bay, it was where her and Megan would be staying for the time being. The ship did not have enough quarters for the crew of two ships and several of the cargo bays had been turned into temporary shelters for the former inhabitants of the USS Entity.

She had been thinking about recent events, when she had injected the nanoprobes into the classrooms computer she had felt like she was stretching a limb that had not been used in a long time, feeling the blood move thru muscles bringing back to life, she reveled in how it made her feel, and then again in the lounge when she had injected the nanoprobes into the panel. It felt natural to her.

And then because of what she had accomplished by putting the nanoprobes she had been given access to the Bridge. When Megan's mom had taken advantage her having access to the Bridge and deceived her she began to evaluate the situation in detail.

She had thought that Mrs. Shearer was in a sense a friend, not as much as she Megan, but still a friend. That was until she had used her to get something she wanted, at that moment Cheryl no longer viewed her as a friend, she viewed her as someone who could not be trusted, and if she had come to the conclusion that if someone she had been close to had taken advantage of her, then it was probable that others were and that is why she had been allowed onto the Bridge.

They wanted something from her, when they no longer wanted anything from her, they would once again place restrictions on her. She had started to think of them as being unlike her, they were flawed, they were unlike the collective, they were far from perfection, she did not intend help them again.

* * *

_Stardate 60166.1_

They proceeded along the same course at impulse, they had not been at warp for then under a third of a hour when the strain of keeping a stable warp field took it's toll on the port nacelle. It had sustained more damage then they thought it had and the trip at warp had only made that damage worse. They were still in the process of doing repairs and even thou they were in better shape then the USS Entity had been before her destruction things could definitely be going better.

The computer gave them the information so were able to determine why the nacelle had failed to keep the warp field stable, it would not give them a specific location of the damaged part of the nacelle so that they could resolve the issue, when they did some further diagnostics they found that internal sensors that they needed to isolate the location had also been damaged also during the attack and were unable to tell if the state of any system was not working at peak efficiency including the sensors themselves and they hadn't had time to get to the redundant systems. They were going to need to need to physical go thru the interior of the nacelle, manually scan the whole system using tricorder's and it could take hours.

* * *

The signal they had detected was very distorted, they weren't sure what they had been trying to report. Their previous communication was that they had encountered a Federation starship and that they were going to eliminate them which was what the procedure they were to follow if the encountered any other vessels. With the technology they had it should have been a simple matter. Then they received this new communication, it could be nothing more then communication problems due to interference from what they had done to the system, but their systems had been designed to counter those effects, and it had been long enough that the effects would be greatly diminished. They had come to the conclusion that something unexpected had happened and that they may be in need of assistance. They set course to the coordinates of their last communication.


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

_Stardate 60166.14_

As the Engineering teams moved thru the port nacelle the severity of the damage had become quickly apparent. A number of the systems necessary to monitor and adjust the warp field had been damaged prior to going to warp and due to the condition of the sensor grid the information had never been reported to damage control teams until it was too late. By traveling at warp with the damaged nacelle they had destroyed the critical systems necessary to maintain warp.

Most of the internal components were now going to need to be replaced in space dock before they could return to warp. It was going to take them over two months for the ship to reach a location at impulse that could perform the repairs.

* * *

She had refined the technique she had used to detect the enemy ship, not out of a need to use it again, the ship had been destroyed. She had done so to so she could locate a Borg vessel and to make herself closer to perfection. That is what they sought. She had made the choice, she would return to collective. They couldn't stop her, not with the USS Horizon. Even if it was at full operation status they would be unable to stop her and it was far from being even three quarters of the way operational.

She had everything worked out except were she would find a Borg vessel, if she took to much time once she had departed other starships may come looking for her and that could pose a problem, she would only be in a shuttle craft and she did not believe she could adapt it enough to successfully disable a starship let alone destroy one.

* * *

It would have been hard to miss her as she slowly moved thru the region at impulse. Her damaged systems emitting a wide range of energy fluctuations and gaseous emotions. They had intended to stay on their present course to the coordinates of the transmission until the detected the weapon signature of the very ship they were looking for on the Federation starship.

They circled around and began following at a distance, scanning to determine the extent of the damage. The ship was not capable of warp and would not be for some time, it's weapons and defensive systems had also been compromised. If somehow they had disabled or destroyed their other ship they had taken a lot beating doing so.

They returned to their original course to determine the nature of the transmission, they could always come back for the Federation starship, it was in no condition to get very far.

* * *

_Stardate 60166.26_

"The name of the project was Genesis." Captain Hunt told his counterpart from the USS Horizon. "From the information the Admiral provided me it had the ability to take a existing spacial body and alter it's makeup to form a Class M planet. The project was canceled for unspecified reasons."

"That could be what we saw happening to the Class K planet." Captain Forsyth said.

"From comparing your scans with the information I received I would have to agree with you. Their are differences however, the wave intensity is considerably larger and more stable then the one in the old project."

"This could be a serious problem, someone else had that technology now, they could do devastating things with it. I's a good thing we destroyed that ship." Forsyth told him.

"The resources necessary to make use of this technology are extensive, more then could have been provided by a single ship, especially given it's capabilities."

"You don't think they were acting on the own?"

"Not in the slightest, I recommended you go red alert in case we encounter anyone else involved in this."

"We would not last in a fight, we barely have impulse power. If we come into contact another one of those ships were finished."

"I believe I have something that may help."

* * *

"My assistance is not a option, you will have to deal with the situation on your own." she said.

This was not the reacting he had been expecting. He had thought it would be as easy as it was on the USS Entity to get her help, she was being completely defiant.

"You will warn us if you find any more of those ships." Captain Hunt said.

"I am not a member of your crew, you do not have the authority to order me. You no longer even have a ship." Cheryl said to him.

"Is this because your friends mom is being confined in security, perhaps we can make arrangement."

"Negotiations will not change my mind, you can keep her in their as far as I am concerned, she deserves nothing less."

This was going nowhere, she was the only hope they had if their were more out their and she was refusing to help. "Why are you refusing to help us?"

"You are not deserving of any assistance I can provide, if more of them come you will be destroyed."

"If the ship is destroyed your friend may not survive, none of us may survive."

"I have taken action to insure that both myself and Megan would survive in the event the ship was destroyed, whether it is from succumbing no the damage it has already received or to another attack." Cheryl replied.

* * *

"Why do you think she won't help us?" Captain Forsyth asked.

"I am not sure, her behavior now was totally different then it was when she originally helped us."

"From what I have heard about the Borg, they are untrustworthy, she may not be completely one of them but she does have some of their traits, we need to come up with another plan, I do not expect her to help us anymore then I would expect a Cube to help us."

"She said she that her and Megan would be safe. Is their anything unusual that has been detected that could provide clues as to what she could have meant?"

"This whole situation is unusual, the Horizon has sustained so much damage that we would probably never find what she meant if it had to do with something she did to the ship." Forsyth answered.

* * *

_Stardate 60166.29_

They sat their scanning the remains of the ship, the weapon signatures were definitely Federation but they were detecting two distinct signatures. The ship they had passed was not the only one out here. They had begun long range scans, that first ship was incapable of doing the amount of damage required to destroy this ship, the weapon signatures of the second ship seemed comparable to those of the first, it must have had additional offensive capabilities. They needed to find that ship and deal with it before they returned to the first one.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"You need to see if you can reason with her, a lot is at stake." Captain Hunt was saying, he had told her most of the conversation between Cheryl and the two Captains leaving the parts out were Cheryl had mentioned Megan. "If their is another one out those ships out their she is our only chance to find it."

"Your forgetting I was against you treating her like this in the first place and I still am, I will talk to her but only because of the lives at stake not because I have come to accept how your treating her." Alice Shearer said.

"That is all I'm asking."

"What your asking is to encourage the use of something that you do not fully understand, none of use do. From what your saying she is retaliating. For all you know this could be the parts of her that are Borg adapting by you allowing her to use them, it sounds like you may just be exchanging one problem for another."

* * *

_Stardate 60166.95_

They had scanned the entire area, they were alone. Their were no other ships in the vicinity. This did not make things any easier, their mission was supposed to have been pretty much straight forward, something had gone wrong, a piece of the puzzle was missing and they didn't even know the shape of it not to mention what was on that piece.

They departed, heading back to the damaged ship, it was now the only option they had to find out what had happened to the other ship and to find out how it may affect the overall plan. It wouldn't take them long to return, or to get prisoners with the condition that ship was in.

* * *

She had been moved to one of the guest quarters, they had all been assigned but they could not allow her to remain with the others in the cargo bay. They didn't want to put her in the Brig, they were trying to remain on her good side.

Captain Hunt led Mrs Shearer thru the corridors towards the quarters Cheryl occupied followed by two security officers. This had to work, if she could not reason with the girl he didn't know what his next step would be.

The corridor suddenly heaved to one side, filling with explosions and smoke. The red alert klaxon automatically engaging as the ship shook again. "It's too late" he thought to himself. "Their was another ship out there and it had found them." He braced himself for the next impact and was caught off guard when the intruder alert warning echoed thru the damaged corridor.

* * *

"Report" Captain Forsyth said as he entered the Bridge.

"Sir they came out of nowhere. Weapons are offline and shields are down." Ensign Olson reported. "Their attack wasn't meant to destroy us. They starboard nacelle has sustained heavy damage, the rear third of it is completely gone, we have been boarded, the size of the boarding parties is unknown." Ensign Olson said.

"Seal off all decks and dispatch security teams." he ordered.

"Security teams have been dispatched, they are having difficulty determining the locations of the boarding parties, main power, internal sensors and internal force fields are offline, we are operating on reserves only."

"They have us. Their technology is superior then ours. What are they looking for?" he thought to himself as he looked at the view screen, the only method they currently had to make any kind of assessment of the enemy ship.

Whoever they are, their treating them as if they were a fly, their ship sitting so close that they could hit them with a torpedo without even needing to get a weapons lock, missing at this range would be impossible. If only they had weapons online.

* * *

She got to her feet, the other ship they had asked her to help them find must have found them first. She had taken into account that their may be a encounter before she had initiated her plan, she had not come up with how she would handle the situation if they did. Now it appeared that she may need to help them after all or she would not succeed.

She approached the terminal on the desk, tubules extending from the top of her hand coming into contact with the terminal's screen.

* * *

They sat their watching over the data coming from the teams that were now moving thru out the Federation starship, they had taken numerous prisoners. Soon they would begin transporting them over, at least one of them would know what had happened to the other ship.

Suddenly all communication with the boarding parties ceased. Some kind of energy surge had come from the other ship, affecting communications and sensors for a few moments. It had only been a few seconds but in those few seconds the tactical situation had changed, it appeared they were about to find out what happened to their other ship, just not in the way they intended.

The Federation starship had somehow reversed, reading were showing that it's thrusters had come and forward shields had come online. It was not possible, they didn't have to power for the thrusters let alone the shields. They quickly initiated a scan to find out were on the ship the energy they were using was coming from, with no success. They widened the parameters and found what they were looking for, a energy beam was being emitted from the ships deflector system at their own ship, they were providing the power the Federation ship needed.

They locked weapons on the deflector grid, it was too late, they may have detected the weapons lock. A feedback pulse of massive intensity moved back along the beam coming into contact with them, within seconds all of their hull had been compromised and all primary systems were failing. The came to the conclusion that it had been a trap.

* * *

The Bridge crew starred in shock, not believing what they had just witnessed thru the view screen. The enemy ship appeared to be spinning out of control. As the Horizon had backed away they could see the beam connecting the two ships. They were unable to determine what was going on any better then the enemy ship had been.

The boarding parties were not a threat for the time being based on reports coming from across the ship, any that were being encountered were trapped between force fields. This was the only way he had been able to come up with a hypothesis about what was going on. Tricorder scans, the only way type of internal scans they were capable of at the moment, showed that the force fields were modulating and had a Borg signature.

Captain Forsyth was not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, she had refused to help them, he had been their and yet she had. He knew it was because the enemy was interfering with her plan and not out of a desire to help them. The threat had been neutralized, at least for now but at what cost. What was she up to?

* * *

More and more systems continued to fail as the effects from the energy pulse moved thru out the ship, soon they would be completely helpless, then maybe even destroyed. The mission had failed, they were not going to allow them to get way from this unpunished. The remaining device was still functioning, it was not connected to the main systems, they would pay for this failure.

* * *

They couldn't gather any information on the enemy ship, with all the damage they had sustained. She did not not have this problem however, she was linked to systems all over the ship, had adapted some of them to perform tasks they would not normally be able to. She was able to detect what they could not.

She did not know what she was detecting but something giving of energy of that magnitude had the potential to destroy the Horizon, she believed she was looking at some kind of self destruction device, they were going to destroy themselves and destroy the Horizon in the process, she quickly calculated how long she had and left the quarters.

* * *

No one was their to see it let alone stop it, with everything else going on it would not have been a priority had anyone been their. The shuttle cleared the bay seemingly of it's own accord and moved a location just off the side of the damaged enemy ship, far enough away that it would not be damaged by any discharges from the damage.

* * *

She entered the cargo bay quickly locating her, she had less then six minutes by her calculation.

"Megan." she said as she approached her. "I am leaving, and am giving you the opportunity to come with me."

"What were are you going?" Megan asked.

"I am going to return to the Collective. I don't have much time to explain this, if you come with me you will be scared at first but it won't always be that way, I can promise you that. If you choose to remain I may never see you again."

Cheryl was right, she had been caught off guard and the prospect of following her to the Borg scared her more then anything had in her life. Cheryl may be her friend, she did not want her to leave, but the fear that filled her was too much.

"I can't come, please don't leave Cheryl."

"I must, it is what I have wanted for some time now, and it is the only way you will survive."

She walked up to Megan. "I will miss you." giving her a hug. This was the most emotion Megan had seen from Cheryl in a long time. Cheryl backed up and she tried to approach her, before she could a field of energy surrounded her friend and she was gone.

Megan collapsed to her knees, tears streaming down her face. "Wait I'll come." she called out but it was too late.

* * *

_Stardate 60167.03_

They watched from the Bridge as the ship started moving away, increasing in velocity. Just before in jumped to warp some of the crew on the Bridge thought the saw a shuttle craft following a course parallel to the enemy ship, later it was determined that it must have been what they had seen when it was discovered one of their shuttle craft were missing.

They watched from a safe distance as the enemy ship exploded, brilliant waves of color emanating from the epicenter.


	8. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Stardate 60326.61_

The Sphere sat their, holding position inside Federation space as the Starfleet shuttle craft approached. They had scanned it as it came into range finding one life form on board. The technology was unique, something the Collective would normally had taken to examine and assimilate.

Thing's had changed however, the Borg adapted and that included the way the handled situations. Some of the recent encounters with the Federation had resulted in unexpected results, ships infected with pathogens, infiltration into the Collective, technology being stolen from ships to name a few. The Collective now handle all encounters involving the Federation with caution.

For that reason when a lone shuttle craft had approached the Sphere the Collective took pause as they evaluated the possibility that it was a threat. Reading's from the life form on board the shuttle showed that it had one been a part been a part of the Collective. That was consistent one of the method's pathogens had been introduced into their ships in the past.

The life form had attempted to link with the hive mind and had not been permitted to while they were exploring their options. In the end they had determined that the risk was too great, they would find the technology the shuttle contained elsewhere, they possibly could create it themselves since it had a Borg signature. The life forms attempts to contact the Collective were blocked, they would continue to scan the technology but would not interact with the individual on board the shuttle.

* * *

These past months she had continued to adapt the technology that permeated her body. She didn't view it as something that had been added to her, altering her natural form. She viewed this as her natural form and her ability to change as a natural ability. She was no longer flawed as Human's were, as she had once been.

She waited for a response from the Collective, yearned for it, after all this time she had come into contact with one of the ships. Only a few seconds had past as she waited, probing into the ship with her mind, when suddenly the connection was severed. They tried again finding herself blocked again.

She knew what it meant, the Collective had no intentions to allow her to return, for what reason she didn't know, maybe they found her damaged or maybe it was something else. Antagonism filled her, she had worked hard to come to this point and had been met with rejection. She would not accept this.

She refocused on the Sphere, modulating the signals coming from her, looking for one would work, when she found one she tried to connect with the ship again, this time with success. They detected her the moment she connected and attempted to block her connection with no success, they were not the only ones who could modulate frequencies and adapt.

She watched in satisfaction as her instructions passed along the ship, activating the self destruction nodes until their was nothing left but metal fragments. She knew she had their attention now, that they would now be the ones searching for her, it didn't matter, she no longer wanted to be a part of them, she could find a way to make her own collective.

**To be continued...**


End file.
